Peter J. Costigan, of South Setauket, a former New York state assemblyman and former chairman of St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, died on Dec. 31, 2015. Photo Credit: Peter J. Costigan, of South Setauket, a former New York state assemblyman and former chairman of St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, died on Dec. 31, 2015.

Peter Costigan, who died last week, led the Assembly’s Select Committee on Higher Education when he sponsored a bill calling for the creation of the Tuition Assistance Program. The bill was signed into law in 1974.

Known as TAP, the program was intended to encourage New York students to attend college in the state while closing the tuition gap between public and private universities. Today, the program grants recipients up to $5,165 annually, depending on family income and the school the student attends.

“The TAP program made it easier for people to get their children to go to school,” Victoria Costigan said Wednesday. “He was concerned about poor families in education.”

Peter Costigan, an attorney, died from cancer on Dec. 31 at the Jefferson’s Ferry retirement community in South Setauket, where he had lived for about two years. He was 85.